Here are a few things you may want to consider:

1. If you are taking NLP training with a quality school, they should give you a quality manual that will make sense on its own after taking your NLP course. You should trust your manual will function as a reference. (I advise you go over the manual after your first day of training, you should be able to tell if it feels like quality material or not.)

2. NLP trainers provided they are trained well (by Richard Bandler) train by subconscious installation. Note taking is something most people do consciously, and may interfere.

3. Can you write, process, and listen at the same time? Would you rather follow the course with your fullest of attention and be a in good state for learning, or do you want to distract yourself by writing things down? Do you often miss parts of instruction because you are writing things down?

4. You should trust that you will understand the material and remember it. A good trainer will also let you practice anything he or she has explained, and supervise you doing so. NLP is learned by doing!

5. Trust there are several good NLP books around, definitions and other things you would be compelled to write down can probably be found in a few key books. Better pay attention to the course you paid for, and invest in the extra 15 dollars for a good book.

6. You can sit more comfortably, when you are not writing. You should be as comfortable as possible in an NLP training, you are meant to enjoy it! Discomfort is distracting.

7. Can you fully engage in a moment, and experience it to its fullest, when you are writing? During an NLP training your mind will be challenged, you will feel emotions, get your creative juices flowing, your brain will be coding and processing constantly. NLP is an experience, not a lecture.

8. NLP training is not like school, where you will be tested on something the teacher literally said, and can not be found in a text book.

9. Do you have to write everything down? Could you just write things down that you know you can not find in a manual. Like class examples, things you felt, saw, or noticed.

10. Richard Bandler is known to start ridiculing students when they over-eager note takers. He does this for a reason.

So should you make a lot of notes during NLP training? It depends. If after reading this list you think are better off taking notes, then by all means do. Everybody learns differently, everyone codes information differently. I can not advise you to do one or the other.I don’t want you wagging your finger at me saying that you should have written things down, because you had a poor trainer or a poor manual for a reference point. What I do advise is consider your note taking strategy prior to starting your NLP training course.  While you are taking notes, you don’t want to be missing out on the experience of a life time.